Dispatches from post-terror Norway

Last month, a white, far-right, Christian fundamentalist in Olso, Norway orchestrated a terror-attack which bombed downtown Olso and killed between 60-70 people and injured close to 100 others on at a Labour-party youth camp near the Norwegian capital.

Friends of the Media Co-op in Norway have offered the following thoughts on the attacks:

 

"I haven't done anything except reading and watching the news since Friday. It has been terrible days for Norway, and obviously many of us knew people who got killed or who had friends that was killed. I am doing ok, as is my closest friends and family. However, I just found out yesterday that I knew one of the girls that was killed in the bombing of Oslo centre, so it is quite hard to go to work today. The way Norway has reacted to the tragedy helps us cope with the meaningless violence. It was beautiful to see more than 200 000 people stand united outside the Oslo city hall on Monday and to see the vast ocean of flowers outside the cathedral."

 

Bjoern

 

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"We are all affected in some way or another. Small country... Needless to say we are all shocked and disgusted to our deepest guts. But we aren't going to be all hysterical like Fox News about it. Instead we'll counter it with showing each other love and respect. 

 

"Names of the deceased are being announced little by little. First five or six yesterday. The rest in the following days."

Geir

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"Norway is now slowly coming back to its normal state, and newspapers are beginning to get filled with the normal gossip again.(and some newspapers are even starting to report from the killings in syria!)

I am very happy that the killer was a blond Norwegian and not a Muslim. By the way  this totally surprised the secret police, they havent monitored racists since a Norwegian killed an adopted child in 2001. At that time the police knew about the killing almost before it was committed, but this year they were searching for the muslims while the killer drove towards the island where he continued his crime.

Now the anti-immigrant forces are on the defensive, it is difficult for them to speak in public about their beliefs, and it will be very interesting to see how the political debate will be in the time to come. I have a feeling that the rhetoric against the immigrants will come back to normal when the newspapers again start to report about  normal crimes committed by immigrants.

Morten